


tomorrow, tomorrow

by cherishmartell



Category: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Elsa Deserves Better, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherishmartell/pseuds/cherishmartell
Summary: At one time, she thinks it is because of what had happened. How he'd been forced to kill men he once considered his teachers.His friends.But as the years pass and the shadows beneath her husband's eyes grow, Elsa begins to think it is something else.Something far, far moredangerous.
Relationships: Vortigern (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) & Catia (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword), Vortigern (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) & Uther Pendragon (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword), Vortigern (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword)/Elsa (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	tomorrow, tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Because Elsa was fascinating and we know so little about her.

Elsa feels him pulling away. Yes, he still reaches for her in the dead of night, still dotes on their Catia, but there is something absent in his eyes, something that makes his grip too tight. 

Even when he is beside her, in the Great Hall, in the comfort of their own chambers, it feels as though he is leagues away. Vortigern is absent-minded, lost in his thoughts until a swift tug to his sleeve, a light touch on his arm, brings him back. He always looks disconcerted, a little lost, before he hides it with a practiced air.

His brother, caught up in the trevails of ruling, does not see it in the beginning, but _she_ does.

She notices the change in him, sees how the cold detachment has pervaded every gesture, every statement. The way he no longer lingers to speak to his brother after he had heard petitions, offering insight and little jokes that used to make Uther roar with laughter. Now Vortigern moves from one task to the next, his mind fixed forward.

_Always forward._

Elsa also sees it fall away when the curtains of their bed close around them. Alone, in this cramped haven, he is alive and whole again. He makes love to her with a fierce desperation that leaves her exhausted and satisfied and _hopeful_. 

In those moments, the wall lowers, ever so slightly; she sees _him_ again. Vortigern becomes the man who had stolen her heart, wooed her with poetry, with quiet words and earnest kisses. 

But when the dawn's light spills across their bed, he is gone again. _Lost to her once more._

At one time, she thinks it is because of what had happened. How he'd been forced to kill men he once considered his teachers. _His friends._

But as the years pass and the shadows beneath her husband's eyes grow, Elsa begins to think it is something else. 

_Something far, far more **dangerous**. _

Her news has been at her lips for days, begging to be released. It is on these words that she has pinned her hopes on, these words that will weaken the wall that he has erected between himself and their world. Help her in bringing him back. 

_That another child quickens within her, their child._

She remembers how he was the day she told him of Catia. His bright eyes, the proud grin as he drank in the sight of her, like she’d hung the moon. Vortigern had glowed with health then, a vitality that is gone now. His arms had been strong around her waist, and his kiss left her breathless.

She easily recalled the words he’d said, when he’d broken the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers. Of the great legacy he intended to craft, one that would be worthy of their child.

The oaths hadn’t frightened her; she’d dismissed them as the outpourings of a proud father.

_And what a father he is._

Other men would have been disappointed with a daughter. After all, daughters cannot swing swords, cannot rule, and cannot uphold their father's legacy. 

But their sweet girl has always been the center of her father's world and Elsa loves him all the more for it. 

Today, in the Great Hall, when he picks up Catia, presses a kiss to her sweetly scented locks and reaches for Elsa's hand, it’s the most like himself he’s been in some time.  
But something is still not quite right. It weighs on him, whatever _it_ is, makes his shoulders slump as though he is a man far older than he is.

 _Tomorrow,_ she resolves, watching him with compassion and a love that still steals her breath, shifting her gaze to Uther and Igraine before following him out of the Great Hall.

_She will tell him tomorrow and she will bring her husband back to her._


End file.
